Silver Linings
Chapter 1: "It's the Road To Dawn."
A/N: Thanks go out to all the people following my author's profile, probably in the hopes that I would upload this very story! As I said back then, this may end up being more of an action/romance/infodump quilt than a coherent story. I'm not even sure it'll be in chronological order. But this chapter follows immediately after the events of Dark Clouds. As a recap, Riku, Lambda, and the King are following the dirt road to dawn, and DiZ and Namine have moved Sora to Twilight Town for safekeeping. Let's get started, shall we?
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"So," Lambda spoke up after about two minutes of walking, "Here we are, walking the road to dawn. Any ideas about our next stop, Riku? I mean, it doesn't seem like this road actually goes anywhere."
Riku scratched his neck. "Well, I suppose we could try that Corridor of Darkness thing the Organization always used to get away. We're wearing the coats now, so it should work."
"Well, where should you make a Corridor to?" Mickey asked.
"Should we check in on your kingdom, Mickey?" Lambda was interested in learning what kind of place would crown a mouse their King, even a mouse as obviously courageous and powerful as Mickey.
"Well...normally, I'd be all for checking up on Minnie-she's my wife, and the Queen of Disney Castle. But we can't use a Corridor of Darkness to get there."
"Huh? Why not? Is there some sort of defense against teleportation?" In Lambda's experience, a teleportation technique could just bypass any sort of defense. Certainly Zexion had been able to just warp out when Riku went ham on him, although he'd obviously run afoul of the Replica afterward. Did magic work differently on different worlds?
"Sort of, though it's more of a defense against Darkness in general. Disney Castle was built around a big crystal ball that the residents of Disney Town have been filling with their hopes and dreams for generations! We call it the Cornerstone of Light, and it keeps Darkness from other worlds out of the Castle. Even if we opened a Corridor to Disney Town, we wouldn't be able to enter the Castle itself afterward. And I'd really hate to be locked out of my house because I took a shortcut getting home!"
"Well, then we can assume Minnie's safe. Is there any other way to check up on her?" Riku asked. It must be wearing on Mickey, being so far from his wife for so long.
"Sort of. I can send her these letters." Mickey pulled an envelope stamped with what was obviously his royal seal-and his royal face-out of his sleeve. "This one is to tell her I made it out of Castle Oblivion unharmed. Don't worry, I didn't write any personal stuff about you in it! Alakazam!" Mickey held the letter over his head, and it vanished in a cloud of yellow sparkles. "Too bad she can't send any back. I really do need to get back there sometime, but now that Sora put the worlds back in order, all the walls between them are back in place, and the Gummi Routes are closed. In the meantime, we could check on some other world. They should be at peace now, but it never hurts to check. Let's open a Corridor to Hollow Bastion!"
Riku blanched. "Hollow Bastion?"
"Maleficent's dead in the real Hollow Bastion, right? What happened after that?" Lambda asked.
"Well, I'm pretty sure the original inhabitants of that world came back from Traverse Town right before the Door to Darkness closed. The place is a wreck, though. The Heartless never found the Keyhole leading to the heart of that world, so the destruction there was a lot more...manual. It won't have been fixed like any of the other worlds Sora brought back."
"We should help out, then!" Mickey was raring to go, as usual.
"But what about Sora?" Lambda asked. "Where did DiZ say he was taking him?"
Riku facepalmed. "Argh, I forgot to ask! I guess we'd get more information in Hollow Bastion than anywhere else, though." Riku finally raised his hand in front of him, calling the Darkness to gather. A Corridor appeared, and they all stepped through.
After a peculiar sense of displacement, like she was in two places at once, Lambda reopened her eyes and saw a mass of blue crystals all around them. "It looks like we're pretty far from any towns. There seem to be life signs over that way," Lambda pointed. "Shall we get going, Riku-Riku!"
Riku had fallen to his knees, and Mickey was already there with a hand on his shoulder. Riku shoved it off. "I...I'm fine. The Darkness was really strong for a second there, but I can take it."
"You don't look fine. Your face is really pale." Lambda caught up as Riku stumbled forward.
"Sorry, Lambda. I don't think there's much to be done about it right now, though. We should get to town."
"Maybe Merlin could help! He's a wizard, and he and I go way back! Let's go, then!" Mickey bounded ahead, and Lambda followed with Riku leaning on her shoulder.
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"Hm...very troubling." The stick-thin old man with a beard that reached his knees mumbled as he placed a hand over Riku's forehead, then his heart. It hadn't taken them long to reach the settlement of the people trying to restore Hollow Bastion, and even less time for the wizard Merlin to appear before them.
"As in, more troubling than the Heartless we fought on the way here?" Lambda asked. That had been unexpected. The Door to Darkness was shut, and this far from the Realm of Darkness, they shouldn't have seen any Heartless like there were in the Realm Between.
"Quite so. The Heartless are entirely expected. Though that Sora boy did stop more from pouring out of the Realm of Darkness, there are plenty already here. And as long as Darkness exists in a single person's heart, the Heartless will always be a constant threat. Riku's condition, though, can't be beaten back into the shadows by a Keyblade like a simple Heartless."
"What's wrong with him? He beat Ansem's hold on him. That I know for sure. His Light's just as strong as his Darkness, which is apparently unique."
"Oh, Ansem's not through with him yet. As a result of Riku's dual nature, the two halves of his heart are constantly locked in a power struggle. Ansem is a third party, one that has been pushed to the audience for now. He'll be back, but he won't be able to take Riku over without Riku's express consent again. Of that, I'm certain. However, Riku has his hands and heart full fighting himself over numerous issues that I'm not sure even I can fathom. He is not the first to be affected so, though he is the first with a sliver of a chance to save himself."
"What can I do? I can't stay in bed forever. Sora needs me." Riku tried to get up.
Merlin pushed him back down, his skinny arms more than a match for Riku's current state. "But can you face him?"
"What are you saying? Zexion asked the same thing, and Riku rather pointedly told him the answer is yes." Lambda glared at Merlin, but Riku just fell back into bed.
"You see? His conflict is not decided yet. It may be better just to ignore such issues for now. Lock them away, but only until you have the strength of heart and will to deal with them. Anyway, who is this 'Zexion?'"
"He's a member of Organization XIII; they call themselves Nobodies, and they all wear cloaks like ours to protect themselves in Corridors of Darkness," Lambda reported.
Merlin scoffed. "And you thought you could use a Corridor of Darkness with only the coat for protection? Nobodies have it easier in some respects. They are what remains when a heart becomes a Heartless. A body without emotion is not dead. It will act with a will of its own, even though the Darkness will twist it beyond recognition. Yet this Zexion has a name of his own, unlike most of the lesser Nobodies. I'll have to do some research on this Organization XIII. For now, remember: the Darkness cannot be held back by a coat or armor if it already has a foothold in your heart. And Darkness lingers in every heart. Nobodies have no hearts to besiege, so they can travel in the Realm of Darkness almost with impunity. You're not quite so 'lucky.'"
"Not every heart..." Riku spoke up. "Kairi didn't have any Darkness at all. Even Sora must have had some, to turn into a Heartless, but Kairi didn't."
"True, but as a Princess of Heart, she's special in her own right. Don't hold yourself up to those standards. For everyone else, it's enough to simply keep fighting the Darkness. For you, that fight will be much harder. It may be best to bow out of the fight for now."
"I think I'll keep my heart, as much trouble as it is, if you don't mind." Riku stated with a hint of sarcasm.
"Of course you should! I'm not suggesting you rip it out yourself. Instead, wear this." Merlin produced a strip of black cloth from his Bag of Holding (which he'd already demonstrated by pulling out an extra bed for Riku). "Tie this around your eyes, and you will no longer have to stare into your Darkness."
Riku did so, and immediately felt better. The color returned to his cheeks. "Wow... I do feel a lot better, but how am I supposed to fight Heartless or Nobodies like this?"
"By relying on senses other than sight, of course! Your sense of smell is highly acute, is it not? Hear your opponents' movements, smell their presence, and strike at their Darkness."
"Yeah... I can sort of 'see' you there above me, even now. Is that the Darkness in your heart?"
"Quite so, though I pride myself on funneling it only into staying on task during all-night research binges. You should be fine using Corridors of Darkness as long as you wear that blindfold, but keep their use down to once per day. Lambda, take this timepiece." Merlin handed Lambda a gold-plated pocketwatch. "This watch will tell you the correct time, even if you take it to other worlds. It's essential to any world-traveler, and I always keep fifty in my bag. You never know when you need to know when it is!"
Lambda took a second to work through Merlin's tongue-twister. "...Got it. Thank you, Merlin. I guess we'll be here for another day, then. Riku, let's find out where Mickey went off to."
"Knowing him, he found some way to get off-world, and now we need to catch up." Riku pushed himself out of bed, and with a final wave right to Merlin through his blindfold, the pair of travelers strode out.
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And there you go! The source of Riku's blindfold, which was a weird part of Riku's character in Days and KH2, is Merlin in this story. Riku will pick up on blind-fighting really fast. In Days, he effortlessly beat Xion without even using his sword. He'll get that good in a hurry. Next chapter: "You Owe Me An Ice Cream!" The next stage is Twilight Town. Cid's got a Gummi Ship, after all, and the only Gummi Route open at this point is the one between Hollow Bastion and Twilight Town.